Wichita eagle., 1887-04-12
THF SANTA FE.

A correspondent elsewhere, and who by
the way Is one of our most solid citizens
offers some criticisms touching the SAINT;
Fe's attitude towards Wichita We have
long looked upon these matters in a con
servative and philosophical way; and
while we have no desire tG weaken oul
contributors points, he and others must
not forget that, corporations are corpora
tions, whose property and interests are
managed and protected by officers elected
for that purpose. and which officers are
guided and Influenced in their actions. by
deductions drawn from the coolest possible
survey in which the stockholders dividend
is the sole inspiration. In the absence of all
sentiment and mere personal likes and dis
likes, the managers of corporations, if they
would prove successful and hold their
places, must look out for all their is
in the immediate present. As
the EAGLE has before remarked, it has not
been to the interest of the Santa Fe system
to have large commercial center, which
would absorb the local traffic of their ter
ritory, butt up two or three hundred
miles west of their Missouri terminus, to
which terminus they would naturally de.
sire to haul all the products Of this ccun-
try. A city at Wichita has meant and
does mean the invasion Of the Santa Fe 8
territory by other paralleling trunk lines,
and not only that, but for the Santa Fe
the operating of local and other trains to
and from Wichita instead OF by and
through Wichita. Bat combination Of
circumstances and the element Of time,
employed by enlightened energies, have
secured for Wichita the prize OF her
dreams and ambitions. Other trunk lines
have been secured and others are coming.
The result will be and swiftly-a city.
How can any one suppose tnat any per-
sonal feeling or prejudice upon the part of
any management of the Santa Fe will
cause such management TO ignore, aban-
don and cripple its chances for and its le-
gitimate portion of so important busi
ness? Surely not. Is any management
of the SAINTS Fe going to per
NIT the Rock Island to handle
all the traffic between here and
Chicago because of some imaginary per-
sonal grievances? OF course not? With
the development of large freight interests
here don't the Santa Fe and Rock Island
managements understand that any combi-
nation entered into to hold the rates above
that which its bulk OF freight should COM
mand, would but result as an incentive for
the extension Of another road, and another
road to cur city? OF course they do. So
the Santa Fe, just as any other road would
do, will haul a train load of freight from
Wichita just as cheaply as the Rock Island
or any other road dare offer. What the
management Of the Santa Fe may have
done or said last year, or last week or yes
terday cuts no kind of figure as to what
its management will do for Wichita today
or tomorrow If there was big money in
it the Santa Fe would run a palace train
out of Wichita every hour at fifty miles an
hour, with no stop between here and Kan
sas City, with boufet cars, cigars and ice
cream thrown in. even if every officer
and every stockholder of that corporation
hated MS like snakes It's the money, the
dividends on the capital invested, which
control the managers of corporations and
not sentiment or likes and dislikes.
So the time is not far distant--it will be
just as soon as the circumstances OF the
inevitable are recognized--when the Santa
Fe will be telling the other railway cor
poratons leading here, that she made ard
owns Wichita, that Wichita is the biggest
thing they ever had hand in building,
that they are proud of Wichita and that
they don't propose that any other streaks
of rusts, called railroads, are going to do
her business. The Santa Fe will not only
talk so but so act in right down dead ear
nest-not from any likes or dislikes, not
from any fancy or maudlin sentiment. but
for the same reason that she is now forced
to make of her past great terminal a sim
pie whistling station, while she pulls out
for Chicago, which pull out not only
weakens the value of her own plant at
Kansas City, where she had been cater
ing to all the pooled lines, but which pull
out involves the expenditure of millions Of
dollars